Three students of the Beta Alpha Psi accounting club at Utah State University’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business recently took first place in two areas of the Deloitte Best Practices competition.
The team competed against other university chapters of the national accounting-focused Beta Alpha Psi honors society in showcasing projects developed during the year to help accounting skills gain professional skills and serve the community. This year, teams from Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, the University of Denver and schools from six other states in the Rocky Mountain region participated.
They were tasked with developing a project or practice in one or more of three areas—innovation, imagination and inspiration—and presenting to judges and other BAP chapters at regional meetings nationwide.
USU won the two categories it competed in, imagination and innovation, which puts them into national competition this summer in Anaheim, Calif.
“This is rewarding to us because one of the four areas the Huntsman School of Business emphasizes is entrepreneurial thinking,” stated Bonnie Villarreal, BAP advisor and director of the master’s of accounting program. “We want our students to look for innovative solutions and that’s exactly what they did.”
For the imagination category, which promoted chapters to improve written communication skills in an imaginative way, the club held a workshop that helped students write cover letters and then adapt them to different companies and job opportunities.
USU met the innovation challenge, which focused on soft skills that were not recruitment-related, by helping more than 90 Boy Scouts earn a personal management merit bag through a workshop they hosted over two nights.
